Southern Fried Festival 2016

Friday 29 to Sunday 31 July, Perth, Scotland

(Scottish Event Awards Best Small Festival 2014)

Tickets and event info from Horsecross Arts Box Office on 01738 621031 www.southernfriedfestival.co.uk

 

Festival Passes (£80) on sale Wed 6 April 10am

General sale Fri 8 April 10am

 

Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack & Andy Fairweather Low

Imelda May

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Gretchen Peters

 

Fred Wesley & The New JB’s

Red Pine Timber Company

Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis

Anna & Elizabeth

 

plus many more to be announced

 

Fri and Sat Late Shows

Free Outdoor Stage

New Daytime Acoustic Stage

Workshops

Open Mic

And our famous Soul Food & BBQ!

 

Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack & Andy Fairweather Low, Imelda May, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Gretchen Peters headline Southern Fried 2016

 

Three UK music greats come together to showcase their love of Americana in this year’s Southern Fried Festival. Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack & Andy Fairweather Low will make their Scottish debut in an ultra-rare trio show as a climax to Perth’s festival of American roots music with other headliners confirmed as Imelda May, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Gretchen Peters.

Named Scottish Event Awards Best Small Festival 2014, the Southern Fried Festival takes place in Perth Concert Hall and other city centre venues from Friday 29 until Sunday 31 July. Festival passes go on sale on Wednesday 6 April with general ticket sales open from Friday 8 April.

Mary Chapin Carpenter brings her beguiling and thoughtful blend of folk, pop and country to Perth Concert Hall on Friday 29 July. With hits like Passionate Kisses, He Thinks He'll Keep Her, Down At The Twist And Shout, I Take My Chances and Shut Up And Kiss Me, Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards (with 15 nominations), two CMA awards and two Academy of Country Music awards. She has recorded 14 albums and sold over 14 million records and earned the trust of her audience through her willingness to look deep into herself and share joys and sorrows, good times and bad and never more so than on her nakedly honest new Dave Cobb-produced album, The Things We Are made Of.

Headlining in Perth Concert Hall on Saturday 30 July, Imelda May is a working-class Dublin girl whose self-belief and self-penned songs have taken her to international stardom. Inspired by the ghosts of Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, the twang of Elmore James, the pathos of Billie Holiday and the swagger of Wanda Jackson, Imelda took the plunge and went solo in 2006 with raw, fiery rockabilly at the heart of her wide-ranging sound. Since then, the rise and rise of Imelda May has been unstoppable with sold out tours, guest spots with Jools Holland and Jeff Beck, platinum records in Ireland and a UK Number 1 album.

Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack & Andy Fairweather Low perform their vast combined catalogue of greatest hits heavily influenced by their love of American R&B, soul and country, albeit with a strong British accent in Perth Concert Hall on Sunday 31 July.

Nick Lowe’s short-lived career as a pop star and lengthy term as a musicians’ musician have given way to his current second act - a silver-haired, tender-hearted, sharp-tongued singer/songwriter. And as such he has no equal. Among his many hits, Paul Carrack has written How Long (Ace), Love Will Keep Us Alive (The Eagles) and Over My Shoulder (Mike and The Mechanics) and has one of the finest voices in the business. Andy Fairweather Low is the guitarist’s guitarist. His CV reads like a who’s who of music: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Roger Waters, Stevie Wonder, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and many more. From the early days of Amen Corner to his own solo hits like Wide Eyed And Legless and his current band The Low Riders who wowed Southern Fried 2 years ago, this man always delivers. Support comes from one of the treasures of the Americana music scene, Texan husband-and-wife team Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, who call to mind the great country duos of decades past.

Current holder of the inaugural UK Americana Awards International Album of the Year and Song of the Year, Gretchen Peters has had her songs covered by artists as diverse as Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, The Neville Brothers, George Strait, Bryan Adams and many others and was recently inducted into the hallowed Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. She has also now firmly established herself as a major artist in her own right, especially in the UK, where her 2015 album, Blackbirds, debuted in the Top 40. She will be joined by Appalachian duo Anna and Elizabeth for an afternoon gig on Saturday 30 July in new Southern Fried Festival venue North Church, Mill Street.

With Perth Theatre undergoing restoration and redevelopment, The Salutation Hotel, a favourite after show haunt with Southern Fried acts, steps in once more to host Late and Southern Fried after Perth Concert Hall’s main stage event on Friday 29 July featuring funk and soul legend Fred Wesley & The New JB’s. Local country rockers Red Pine Timber Co. headline Saturday’s Late and Southern Fried gig in Perth Concert Hall.

As ever there will be smaller gigs in city centre venues, open mic sessions, a free outdoor stage, a new daytime acoustic stage and various fringe events plus a generous serving of the famous Southern Fried soul food. More acts are still to be announced.

Festival director Andy Shearer said:

“We’re delighted with the strength and breadth of this year’s headline acts. Mary Chapin Carpenter is one of the few remaining big name songwriters on the Americana scene who hasn’t yet performed at Southern Fried so we’re very pleased to secure an appearance from her. Nick Lowe is another artist we’ve been chasing pretty much every year since Southern Fried began and to not only book him this year but in the company of two real heavyweight musicians in Paul Carrack and Andy Fairweather Low feels like a real coup and something our audience will get really excited about. After the success of our first rockabilly events last year, it’s a natural progression to have Imelda May perform this year as her appeal stretches from the hardcore retro rock’n’roll crowd to a very broad mainstream fanbase thanks to her Jools Holland appearances and high media profile. It’ll be a rowdy uptempo night so we’ll have a dancefloor as well as seats available to keep everyone happy. Gretchen Peters is quite simply one of the world’s great songwriters in any genre and it’s lovely to welcome her back to Perth especially as it’ll be the first show in a new venue for us, the North Church on Mill St, which we’re very excited about.”